, 1887-05-21
DURING THE QUEENS REIGN


England Has Had Fifteen Foreign Wars
Under Victorin's Rule.
Now, how many wars have we had
during the queens reign? We nave had
a war in New Zealand, and one of the
officers engaged in that war was obliged
to admit that the New Zealanders were
entirely right and we entirely wrong.
We have had three wars with China. We
had a Zulu wal not long ago, made abso-
lutely by a man without any orders from
this country, a man who professed to be
really influenced by the Christian faith
and religion. That cost us a great many
English lives, and we destroyed the Zulu
nation, at the same time bringing con-
fusion into South Africa. We nave had
a Scind war, in which one of the Nap
piers was concerned, a war for which he
had not the slightest justification or in
struction from this country. Then there
was the great Gikh war, by which the
Punjaub was annexed to the English do
minion in India. There were also two
Afghan wars, for which there was not a
particle of justification, in one of which a
whole English army was destroyed. Then
we have had three Burmese wars, the
second of which, 1 recollect, was got up
on ]pretences absolutely fraudulent and
scandalous. Then we come to the Crimean
war, the really big war of our time,
though it did not last very long. But as
to its severity, and the mortality caused
by it, no man is able to make an accurate
computation.
A ook written by a French general
who recently visited the Crimea, in con
nection with the cemeteries there, esti-
mated that the bodies of $50, 900 men are
there. l believe the Russians alone buried
more than 100, 900 on the north side Of
Sevastopol. Kinglake in his history esti-
mates that 1000, 900 men lost their lives
in that struggle, a number about equal
TO every adult man in the vast city Of
London.
And what were all these lives sacri-
feed for? Absolutely nothing whatever,
because the only apparent result was a
slight limitation put upon the Russian
government with regard to its future
fleet in the Black sea, and that was sur
rendered the moment the Franco-Ger-
man war broke out. 1t was not war, be-
cause war was never declared, but we
made war, notwithstanding, on a
try with which we were VIGOROUSLY and
professedly at peace. The bombardment
of Alexandria is sort of peace which the
public of this country have not been en-
thusiastic about. Then followed the war
in the Soudan, during which, at the
lowest calculation, from 40, 600 to so, 900
lives were lost.
l once proposed that the foreign office
should be burned down, and it would be
a very good thing if all its treaties were
burned with it. Conceive the cost of the
vars that nave occurred during the reign
of the queen. Go back further to the
beginning of what VT call our parlia-
mentary and constitutional system in the
reign of William III and you will find
that without one single exception they
were absolutely unnecessary, and that
the only result they have produced is an
enormous national debt, which from that
time to this has been extracted from the
labor and the sweat Of millions Of men
in this country, but which should have
remained with them for the s~ustenance
and comfort of themselves and their fam
lilies.
Fifteen wars in a fifty years reign of q
professedly peace loving and tender
hearted queen are hardly among the
blessings for which jubilee thanks will
Ne Naturalization Globe.